Airframe

I guess everyone with a finger on the tech side of things would have heard of Apple’s newest toy in the lineup of lean, mean workplace machines – the MacBook Air.
(In case you haven’t, check out the video ad here)


At less than quarter of an inch high at its thinnest and weighing just under 3lbs, this is by far the lightest and thinnest notebook on the planet!


But while the folks at Apple boast at how their marvelous creation still manages to have a 13.3 inch screen, a full-sized, backlit(!), qwerty keyboard, gesture based track-pad (like the one found on the iPhone), built-in video camera and the works, I for one, still find some of the basics missing.


For starters, this only comes with an 1.8”, 80GB hard drive, same as the one found on an iPod. And by any standard, 80gigs won’t get you too far these days. And if you thought that was bad, get a load of the biggest blow to computing: no optical drive!
For the life of it, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to buy a notebook you can’t put a DVD in.
Of course, you do have the option of buying a separately sold wireless disk drive and transfer files to the notebook via wireless or Bluetooth, but not something everyone’s gonna be happy about.


Made me wonder on what kind of audiences exactly are they hoping to cash in on anyway. You can rule out average users – at $1,800, I guess it’s not something a college student is looking for.
No drive means no video games, no movies and not much else. There goes the second huge chunk of the market.
And with a sluggish 4,500rpm 80GB drive clocking at a miserable 1.8Ghz, performance users can look the other way.
Which leaves us with only one thing left: business users. You know, those serious-looking, time-zone hopping executives whose only excuse for even touching a computer are presentations, spreadsheets and nothing much else other than looking important and carrying the fancied gizmo around.
These bad boys can have a field day with this. The rest of us can go spend our money on something useful!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

yep, i'd have to agree... what do you make of the Dell XPS M1330 in comparison?

-=A.R.N.=- said...

Hey,
Yup, you're right...the XPS M1330 rocks! Actually the downside to all Macs (which is the up side to other notebooks) is they only come with a pre-defined config...unlike the Dell which you can build to order.

No comparison dude, the Air book is for making a style statement while the XPS is for ppl who actually wanna get some work done!

A wo(a)ndering mind said...

hehehe!! I cant even afford an ipod still so i think all I will say at this point... very nicely written blog Rahman! I see that ur sharp wit will stay with u and go to the grave with u.. :)

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@a wo(a)ndering mind
Hmmm, to "the grave" is a kinda pushing it a little don't you think?
:D